


Farewells Aren't Forever

by Pyrosnowman



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: One Shot, Pre-Fifth Fleet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 02:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13777689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyrosnowman/pseuds/Pyrosnowman
Summary: Leaving for the New World is certainly exciting, but you can't take everything- and everyone- with you.





	Farewells Aren't Forever

"So, you're really set on going?" The voice came from a hunter, tall and broad with a longsword strapped across his back. Olive-toned skin, tanned further from years under the Val Habar sun, stared out with apprehension from beneath a mop of shaggy black hair.

The second hunter shrugged, fidgeting with a whetstone that he had supposed to have been using on one of his dual blades. "I was recommended. Fifth Fleet needs people, experienced ones at that, and I've spent the past 3 years with the Bherna research commission hunting down Deviant Monsters. They think I'd be a useful addition in a land where everything is unknown."

The first hunter sat down beside his friend, sighing and staring out into the seemingly endless Desert bordering Val Habar. 6 years back he had come here with the same friend who sat beside him now. His friend had joined a Caravan, worked with the Ace Hunters, earned a spot among the G-Ranks as the man who slew Shagaru Magala. They had parted on good terms, knowing that the life of a hunter rarely meant leaving many a friend behind. The Hunter meanwhile had worked freelance before he was hired on as part of the Research Commission. The same Commission that wanted to send him across the ocean to a land unknown and infested with Elder Dragons. Pay wasn't great, chances of returning home were slim, but he would be an explorer, a pioneer, taking on expeditions that no hunters here in the Old World would ever experience. And yet....

"Would it affect anything if I said I wanted you to stay?" The longsword Hunter sounded hopeful and scared all at once, a rare hesitance in his voice that was seldom seen or heard.

"C'mon Zak. We both knew that when we left Guild Training and came here, we would be parting for our assignments. You took on freelance work with a Caravan, practically traveled the continent. This is the same thing."

"Before we could meet up for hunts, have each other's back. We reached G-rank together, took down a Fatalis together!" Zak protested, wringing his hands nervously. "And besides. If you don't come back, your sister will have my head on a pike. Can you imagine? 'Oh yeah sorry I promised to keep your little brother safe and he was my best friend and all, but Val sorta got chomped in half by an Elder Dragon we've never seen before because I couldn't go with him'."

Val laughed at that, enticing a exasperated chuckle from Zak. "I'm _G-Rank_. I think I can handle myself. Besides, isn't one of the Ace hunters going with?"

Zak grimaced at that. "The Cadet, yeah. He's going as an undercover Guild Knight, he'll be the only one in the New World. He's the least known out of that squad so it makes the most sense to send him."

"Exactly! Guild Knights all have to be G-Rank as a basic requirement. So there'll be two of us A-listers going."

"People have already died, Val. A lot of people. Fleets never get there whole, and when they do it's a constant struggle with the local fauna to keep Astera safe. Things go _wrong_ there, man."

"Things go wrong _everywhere_ , Zak. We go and fight giant fire-breathing hellbeasts for a living; it's part of the job description."

Val was right and they both knew it, which didn't mean Zak shouldn't have been worried. This was the Fifth- and final- fleet to go out to Astera, anymore after this would be to bring the survivors home. Rumor had it that an entire Fleet had been lost during an expedition, alongside a host of other disasters and near-disasters. Zak couldn't go, it would break his contract with the Caravan (not that he would be willing to leave the people he'd grown so close to over the years to begin with), Val's sister, another G-Ranker named Vera, was one of the stationed Hunters in Yukumo and had her own share of Elder Dragon troubles to deal with. Val was one of the few G-Rank hunters who was willing and had worked personally with the Research Commission in the past. He was the ideal candidate for an A-list Hunter in the Fifth Fleet, and alongside the Ace Cadet, the _only_ A-Listed. The Fifth Fleet sorely needed experienced Hunters, and the Ace was too busy with his undercover Guild Knight duties that Val doubted he would be able to handle the entire task on his lonesome. Glancing down at the excitable loudmouth, Val wasn't sure how "undercover" he would be, and judging from the pursed lips of the Ace Commander and the barely contained smirks on the Gunner and Lancer, he would bet his last zenny that they were thinking the same thing.

"For his sake, I hope nobody breaks Guild Law over in Astera," Val chuckled, gesturing down at the Ace Cadet.

Zak snorted. "He's a bit of an airhead, but don't underestimate him. Never seen him use a weapon without the utmost perfection, and he's weirdly good at making new tools. Diligent, too."

There was a beat of silence before Val spoke.

"Still don't trust him to keep me safe?"

"Hell no."

"I'll be safe. I won't leave you to Vera's wrath," Val joked.

Zak looked at his friend, a certain seriousness in the set of his jaw that was rare to see. "Just come back to me. Do what you gotta do for the commission, the Guild, whatever, but you have to _come back._ "

Val smiled softly and nodded. "I will."

Zak swallowed nervously and looked back into the endless Sand Sea, grateful that the twilight hid his blush.

**Author's Note:**

> Both my player Hunters from 4U (Zak) and Generations (Val), the latter of which I headcanon went to the Fifth Fleet after his work in Bherna finished. I might do more for Monster Hunter, might not.


End file.
